Chapter 1021: The Collapsed Pool

Beneath the calm surface, sounds of fighting suddenly began to ring out; ripples spread in rings across the water, and the alert wolf pack immediately fixed their eyes on the surface.

"Boom!"

"Splash!"

An explosion went off underwater; the churning surface suddenly shot up a fountain several meters high, and the corpses of blasted water creatures kept floating up. Right after, another series of sounds like a mountainside collapsing echoed from the bottom of the pool. The ground beneath the wolves' paws trembled along with it, the pool surface heaved violently, the water surged and splashed everywhere, and the evolved wolves surrounding the pool quickly retreated, standing in the distance and howling uneasily.

The head wolf and the broken-waist wolf stood on the bank, watching the increasingly turbid pool water with tense eyes, not bothering at all about their limbs being soaked by the boiling, surging water.

"Awooooo—" The head wolf opened its jaws and urged Xia Qing to come up quickly.

Seeing no sign of Xia Qing coming out, the broken-waist wolf turned and ran to open the tent that had been soaked by the pool water, fetched the underwater robot in its mouth, flipped the switch, and was just about to lower the robot into the turbid pool when a black shadow darted swiftly out of the water and leapt onto the bank. It pulled off its protective face mask and took great gulps of fresh air.

After catching her breath, Xia Qing introduced to her companions, who were staring at her with wide eyes, "The bottom of this pool is hiding a crocodile over seven meters long… about this long… this rock here, and it's a brain-domain evolver. It ambushed me."

The head wolf bared its fangs at the water and let out an authoritative roar; the wolf pack immediately gathered at the edge of the pool, ready for battle.

The broken-waist wolf looked at the big rock, then looked at Xia Qing.

"Queen my lord, I've already blown the big crocodile to death." Xia Qing shook the water off her body, walked over to the broken-waist wolf, and lowered the underwater robot into the water, sinking it slowly. The display screen no longer showed the clear, tranquil scene from before; the pool water was now a sheet of murk. "After I blew up the crocodile with a grenade, a huge boulder I'd pried loose on the pool wall came free and fell off. A massive amount of rock collapsed and tumbled down. I dodged the stones and barely managed to find a water channel to swim back up."

Xia Qing was cautious by habit; every time she went on a mission, she prepared for the worst. So even though, after checking, she believed there were no large water creatures below and was only going down to gather herbs and pry stones, she still brought grenades and a dagger.

Unfortunately, the rock wall collapsed too fast, and she had reached her limit and had to surface for air, with no time to drag out that several-hundred-jin slab of meat that had fallen down.

"The spot where the crocodile was hiding has been buried under rock—I can't find it. When I was swimming up, I thought I saw a hole appear at the edge of the pool, maybe a hole…"

When the underwater robot had descended to about six meters, Xia Qing tapped the control button to change direction, searching through the murk for the hole that had appeared after the collapse.

Two wolves and one person stared at the monitor for three minutes, and finally spotted a hole a little over half a meter high. But before Xia Qing could feel happy, they saw a head poke out from inside the hole!

"Holy crap! What is that? A giant evolved water rat?!"

After the broken-waist wolf got a clear look at the animal on the display screen, it threw its head back and let out a long howl. The water creature that had been about to come closer and examine the underwater robot heard the howl and swam quickly upward.

The moment it moved, Xia Qing immediately denied her earlier guess. "It's not a water rat. Its limbs are short, it has webbing between its toes, and its tail is thicker than a water rat's. This should be…"

"Splash!"

Xia Qing turned her head to look at the animal that had leapt out of the water—short snout, long whiskers, big round eyes, small round ears—and continued, "…an otter?"

After this otter came ashore, it shook its plump body to fling off the water droplets, then squatted on the ground and used its two short front limbs to rub the thick, dense, soft fur on its short, thick neck. After the otter came ashore, the wolf pack only glanced at it twice before each going about their own business.

Xia Qing stared at the otter for a few seconds, then turned her head and asked, "Queen my lord, is this one of your companions?"

Seeing the head wolf's perfectly calm face, Xia Qing knew she had guessed right. "The Queen my lord really likes animals with big eyes, small ears, and long whiskers."

Although the weight and body length differed greatly, this otter and the weasel both belonged to the mustelid family, and their facial features and body shape were quite similar.

Xia Qing no longer paid attention to this otter that wouldn't attack her, and continued operating the underwater robot to explore the situation at the bottom of the pool.

The good news was that after the pool's stone wall collapsed, it completely blocked off the funnel-shaped pool bottom and the underground river channel. The pool was now only fifteen meters deep, which had already achieved the goal of filling the pool to guard against the giant python. After the Violent Rain, Xia Qing wouldn't have to come here and play half a month of Xia Jingwei.

The bad news was that the crocodile with its belly blown open, along with her black blade and pry bar, had been completely buried under the rocks. Xia Qing had lost a handy weapon, a tool she was used to using, and a several-hundred-jin slab of meat.

Coming out on a mission and running into an ambush, only losing weapons and tools while the person was fine—that was a great blessing. After having the two clients check the situation at the bottom of the pool, Xia Qing pulled the underwater robot back up. "Broken-waist, give me my payment, I'm heading back."

The broken-waist wolf didn't move, looking thoughtful.

What, watching her finish the job in half a day and now wanting to welch on the deal?

Xia Qing, who had nearly been crushed to death in the pool, smiled through gritted teeth. "Broken-waist, you get your ass over here to me, we need to have a nice little talk!"

The broken-waist wolf followed Xia Qing into the tent. The head wolf stretched in a big, lazy yawn, then leapt onto a rock to sunbathe.

Half an hour later, when Xia Qing had changed into her protective suit and crawled out of the tent, she found the wolf pack had already scattered, the dead fish on the water surface had all disappeared, and only a dozen or so well-fed otters remained. Their short limbs hung limp, bellies up, floating on the water surface, seemingly asleep.

When Xia Qing began packing up the tent, these otters all raised their heads in perfect unison and stared at her. Xia Qing immediately called out to the partner who was about to leave. "Broken-waist, come over here and help me pack up the tent."

Packing up the tent was a small matter; the main purpose was to guard against that group of seemingly cute, fluffy otters in the water climbing up to attack her.

Otters have three pairs of incisors arranged in a horizontal row across the front of their mouths; their canines are cone-shaped, and the outer edges of their carnassials are as sharp as blades, giving them formidable biting power.

Apart from their formidable bite, otters, which belong to the mustelid family along with honey badgers and weasels, also share a trait common to most mustelids: an extremely strong sense of revenge.

In the sixth year of the Calamity, when Hui Three's eight-person squad was carrying out a hunting mission, two members were dragged underwater by a group of otters and bitten to pieces. The video the surviving members brought back was extremely horrifying and bloody.

This was Xia Qing's first time encountering otters in the Evolution Forest. She couldn't gauge this animal's habits, so she needed to drag a wolf over to act as her shield.

The broken-waist wolf naturally had no objection, and very happily used its big paws to help Xia Qing pack up the tent. When the supplies were packed and they were ready to leave, Xia Qing bid the broken-waist wolf farewell. "I'm off. I'll come back after the Violent Rain period."

Damn this sly merchant wolf—it made Xia Qing fill the pool until only six meters of water remained, that is, filled up to near the hole the otter had poked out of, otherwise it damn well wouldn't pay the Use Yishi.

The broken-waist wolf's reasoning also held up: it demanded that Xia Qing fill this pool until the bottom could be clearly seen with wolf-eyes, that is, to the same depth as the Python Pool. Filled to that level, there'd be no need to worry about a giant python secretly crawling over and hiding at the bottom.

Putting herself in the other's shoes, Xia Qing admitted the broken-waist wolf had a point. To get the Use Yishi, she could only come back after the Violent Rain to continue prying stones and filling the pool.

Although there had been some mishaps today, not much time had been lost. When Xia Qing returned to the territory, it was nearly noon, just in time to make lunch for the boss and the fourth.

But no sooner had she stepped onto Mountain No. 49 than she received a call for help from Guo Chongjun, the head of security at the Ninth Center. "Director, we ran into an ambush outside Northern Sector Three. Our vehicle was blown up, one person dead, three injured. We've now retreated with two magneto-sense evolvers into the ruins of a building three kilometers north of Northern Sector Three. Requesting support!"